on Lenin in 1918. Here are the words of the decree as carried in the official Izvestia on November 30, 1920:
Confident of its impregnability, the Soviet Government is nevertheless very far from offering an opportunity to these counter-revolutionists and agents of the Allies for resuming again the methods of struggle used by them in 1918 and resulting in a stern lesson in Red Terror in retaliation.
The Workers' and Peasants' Government has in its hands quite a sufficient number of prominent and responsible counter-revolutionary leaders from the camp of all the above-mentioned groups, especially from among the Wrangel officers. Regarding all of them as bound together in a mutual pledge to relentless struggle against the authority of the workers and peasants, the Soviet Government declares the Socialists—Revolutionists of Savinkov's and Chernov's groups, the White Guards of the National and Tactical Centre, and Wrangel's officers—hostages. In the event of an attempt on the lives of the leaders of Soviet Russia the responsible partisans (literally in the Russian text—those who think likewise) of the organizers of an attempt will be exterminated without mercy.
In order fully to realize what this means let us quote from the appeal to the Socialists of the world by Martoff, leader of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party an appeal that has been endorsed by the well-known syndicalist Merrheim, head of the French Metal Workers and one of the leaders of the Conféderation Génèrale du Travail. Referring to the above ukase, Martoff, who is well and favorably known by the entire labor movement of Europe, writes:
